Funny - I believe I am experiencing the same issue as of last night.  Went
to drive to a buddy's place and couldn't find first.  Eventually located it
over toward reverse having to push the shifter down - second is directly
below first and reverse slightly further to the left and up.  Third and
fourth seem to be where first and second typically sit.  The only gear that
seems to be in the right spot is my low gear (Syncro).

Had the shift mechanism housing off and inspected the shift rod and gear
shift union as well as the stop plates mounted to the inside of the housing
but didn't see anything blatantly wrong.

I am a bit perplexed as well.

BT
86 Syncro Westy (Whitesail)

On Sat, Aug 31, 2013 at 4:12 PM, Ian MacDonald
<overengineered42@gmail.com>wrote:

> I have recently bought an 85 Wolfsburg Weekender Edition and was having
> lots of fun with it. Until I messed up the shift alignment, and lost first
> and second, having magically turned in third and fourth. Now, after reading
> my Bentley, I thought I had fixed it after going through the steps. But to
> no avail. Even with my father's help, neither of us have managed to fix it.
> He's had many vans over the years, and currently has three in his
> possession, but none have been manuals, so he doesn't have any tricks to
> fix this issue.
> So I come to all of you nice people and ask fit here's anything we're
> missing, or if the answer is to continue trying to move the plate the lever
> bearing rests in around. Anything is welcomed at this point, because it's
> getting a little irritating that first occasionally turns up where reverse
> should be, but never back where it belongs.
>
>                            Thanks in advance,  Ian MacDonald
>